Zoo cuts price and prints early in bid to crack Nuts

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Emap has slashed the price of Zoo Weekly and moved its on-sale day from Wednesday to Tuesday to capitalise on the weekend’s events.

The cover price has been cut from £1.20 to 50p for this week only, undercutting the IPC-published rival Nuts, which has also announced a one-off drop in price, from £1.20 to 60p.

Zoo Weekly’s switch to a Tuesday sale will be permanent and puts it ahead of Nuts, which is available in London on Wednesdays and the rest of the UK on Thursdays.

Zoo Weekly editor Paul Merrill said the move had been planned for some time and was not a response to Nuts, which claims to be outselling its Emap rival, having hit its target of 200,000.

Merrill told Press Gazette: “We just thought it was a more convenient day to be on sale. The extra day can only help. We’re not really concerned with what Nuts is doing. We did it because it was the best decision for us.”

Zoo Weekly and Nuts created a new magazine sector for men when they launched with a combined marketing spend of £16m at the end of January.

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Although Nuts has pledged to announce an ABC this summer, Zoo Weekly is unlikely to report an official figure until next February.

Zoo Weekly is understood to have surpassed its target sale of 150,000 and Merrill claimed sales were growing. “We tend to be rising every week. Jordan is always a popular cover girl, no question about that.”

Merrill’s team has also produced a 16-page supplement for this week’s issue featuring the 20 Sexiest TV Babes.

Merrill played down a complaint he received from a remote tribe in New Guinea over a suggestion in his magazine that there were cannibals there who indulged in “random orgies”.

“We have had one complaint from a tribal leader but we’re dealing with it internally,” he said.